Breaking Point
by Phoenix089
Summary: She'd known that this mission was going to be a dangerous one, but Lucy had never thought this was how it would end. - Spoilers for chapter 360. NaLu oneshot.


**This is important; this was inspired by chapter 360, so this is stupendously spoilery for that. Just warning you now.**

Now that I've said, honestly, this was just me needing to write some badass Lucy, and also exploring the possibility of her going into a rage like Natsu did that time with Rogue. Hope you enjoy this fangirl-thought inspired little something UvU

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Initially, all she'd felt was confusion when Natsu yelled at them to get away from him, but the desperate edge to his voice had Lucy throwing herself in front of Wendy protectively before she'd fully realised what was going to happen. And then she'd heard the explosion going off, and she'd managed to spin around just in time to watch with horror as Natsu's smoking body fell to the floor, an instinctual murmur of denial escaping her lips as she fought back the tears that wanted to cloud her vision.

She kept expecting him to laugh it off, to get back up and thank the Tartaros member for the meal as he usually did, but there was … Nothing. Just nothing, and the longer Natsu remained motionless on the floor, the louder the ringing in Lucy's ears became.

Distantly, she heard the cat-eared boy laugh, "I'm actually impressed that his body's still there. That's a fireball for ya," and Lucy's teeth snapped together at the sound. She wasn't aware of anything else in the room in that moment – the destruction, the way that she was gripping Wendy tight enough she surely must be hurting the girl. She couldn't hear Happy's sobs, and neither did she realise that the Demon was threatening Mikelo and his granddaughter – All Lucy could see was Natsu's still smoking body lying limp on the floor, and her entire body felt as though it were vibrating with the raw emotions that were ripping through her.

"You – You -," Lucy choked out, slowly rising to her feet, completely ignoring Wendy's quiet objection.

The cat-demon cocked an ear, and his jagged grin widened as he looked down at her, noticing the look in her eye. "You gonna be as stupid as your friend are ya?" he sneered, and Lucy's teeth clamped down tighter at the jab.

"He isn't just a _friend_," she snarled as she blindly pulled two keys off her loop – She wasn't even sure which two she'd grabbed until Scorpio and Sagittarius appeared. The man's eyes widened at the appearance of the celestial spirits, and then he was hurriedly jumping to avoid Scorpio's sand-blast.

"He's the hope of our guild!" Lucy continued, words tumbling from her lips before she could stop them, "The one who encourages us all to do our best, even when the situation's hopeless!"

As soon as the cat-demon jumped out of the sand cloud, Sagittarius shot a barrage of arrows at him, but the man caused an explosion right before him that swallowed the arrows up, using the explosion's momentum to push him up to the rubble of the roof. His tail flicked irritably as he looked down at Lucy, his eyes narrowed with thought.

Then his grin widened further, and he gave another mocking cackle. "Sounds like he was more than that to you," he said, throwing an explosion down to where Lucy was standing.

Lucy couldn't remember summoning him, but Taurus was suddenly there, taking hold of her arm and throwing her out of the explosion's path right before disappearing again. As her feet skidded on the ground, fighting to find their footing once more, Lucy's gaze remained focused on the cat-demon dancing out of the way of the flurry of arrows Sagittarius was firing at him.

He was forced to drop to the floor below once more to avoid another of Scorpio's sand blasts, and his eyes narrowed as he saw Lucy standing there, her whip held tight in her hand as she watched him fall. There was a moment where their eyes met, and then the Tartarus member's mouth twisted into a displeased scowl before they both attacked.

The cat-demon threw another explosive blast at her, and Lucy thrust out her whip – Not to wrap around a beam so that she could swing herself to safety, but to wrap around the demon's ankle, jerking him forward so that he would be caught in the explosion too.

Just before she could be enveloped by the heat of the blast, it was swallowed by a flash of light, and Lucy ignored Loki's shout of "Couldn't you at least have waited for me to get back before taking one of them on?!"as she ensured her whip's grip didn't loosen.

She couldn't see through the smoke, but she could feel the demon trying to shake off the whip, so Lucy narrowed her eyes and gave it a sharp jerk. There was a grunt of surprise, followed by the _thwack_ of arrows sinking into wood, and the tugging on the whip eased considerably.

Shaking off Loki's restraining hand, Lucy made her way through the smoke, and glared down at the demon where he'd been secured to the floor with Sagittarius' arrows. He was looking up at her resentfully as he strained to free himself.

"And now what?" he spat, "You can't hit me – Not unless you wanna explode like your boyfriend."

Logically, she knew that she ought to ignore the words – He was trying to goad her into attacking him, to taking on his curse as well – but, they still made her eyes widen as she ground her teeth, Natsu's quick shout of _Get away from me!_ echoing through her ears, followed by all the things she'd never been able to tell him. Things she'd never _be_ able to tell him now, because of the cat-eared bastard at her feet.

It took Lucy a few seconds to realise that the wordless, Natsu-esque shout of rage that she could hear was coming from her, and then she was lunging towards the stupid demon, her hands trembling with the need to beat her fists into something - If she couldn't do that, she thought she was going to break into incoherent sobs.

Before she could lay so much as a finger on the Tartarus member though, she was suddenly wrapped up in a tight, restraining hold, and Lucy found herself growling, "Let _go_ of me Loki! I'm going to kill him! Let me _go!_"as she fought to throw him off, the demon's bemused grin only angering her further.

All fight drained out of her though, as the arms that had wrapped around her simply tightened their hold, and a voice that was decidedly _not_ Loki's murmured, "It's okay Lucy. It's okay."

The voice made her lower lip tremble, but she managed to snap, "Get off me Gemini," because it couldn't be Natsu. Natsu was lying motionless on the floor somewhere behind her, and it was Tartaros' fault. They'd stolen him before she could find the way to tell him how important he truly was, just as she'd never been able to tell her father.

Lucy's knees gave out beneath her as the tears broke through her rage, and she simply sagged in Gemini's arms, allowing the tears to fall unchecked as her body shook with sobs. She didn't even fight as Gemini quietly sighed, and threaded a hand into her hair as they turned her into their borrowed chest. Lucy thought it was entirely unfair that the only time she'd get to do this was with a fake Natsu.

"Who the hell's a fake?" the voice at her ear grumbled, and it took a second for Lucy to realise that she'd hiccupped the thought aloud. It took another second for the words to register, and she couldn't help but frown at them with irritation. Trying to calm her down was one thing, but trying to make her believe that Natsu wasn't…

Lucy went to pull back, meaning to force Gemini's gate to close, but the very instant that she moved, the arms around her simply tightened, crushing her into Natsu's chest.

"If you're gonna go on a rampage cos you think something's happened to me," Gemini continued in that disgruntled tone that was just so perfectly Natsu Lucy had to wonder when they'd spent enough time with him to perfect it, "You ought to at least be able to tell when it's actually me, not your copycat key."

With a trembling lip, Lucy pulled back against the grip that was tight around her until she was able to look into that familiar face – There were dark circles under his eyes, and there was a dark bruise forming on his left cheekbone, but he was looking down at Lucy was a reassuring smile that made her heart clench.

Not quite daring to let herself hope, she glanced over to where Natsu had been lying unconscious before, only to blink rapidly as she realised Wendy was lying on the floor instead, gasping for breath as she grinned at Lucy. Charle was scolding her for using too much of her magic, and Happy was a sobbing mess beside the two. Slowly, Lucy turned back to Natsu, swallowing against the lump in her throat as she tried to force her eyes to focus through more tears.

Natsu flinched as she looked at him, and demanded, "W-Why are you crying again? It's _fine_."

That, of course, only made her sob even harder as she threw herself back into his chest with a shout of "You idiot!"

Behind them, Lucy could hear the Tartaros demon grumbling, and she could hear Mikelo complaining about the state of his home. She could even hear Loki flirting with Mikelia, but she just couldn't find it within herself to care about any of that right then. The only thing she _did_ care about in that moment was the way that Natsu's hand was rubbing up and down her back soothingly as she continued to cry into his chest – A chest that was still rising with each breath he took.


End file.
